PayPal seeks to increase use of PYUSD stablecoin with native issuance on Polygon

PayPal said Thursday it is deepening its ties with the Polygon network in the hopes of boosting adoption of its PYUSD stablecoin.

The company said the (PYUSD) stablecoin will now be issued natively on Polygon, in addition to becoming available through Polygon's Open Money Stack. The move is meant to make it easier for businesses to use PYUSD to settle payments globally.

"A stablecoin is only as useful as the places it can go and what it can do when it gets there," Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron said. "Bringing PYUSD natively into the Open Money Stack means a business can take money in, move it across borders, and cash it out in one integration, with compliance built in."

According to PayPal (PYPL), more than $2.6 trillion in stablecoin payments have been settled on Polygon, with both Revolut and Stripe using the network. PYUSD, which is issued by Paxos, has a total supply of nearly $3 billion, putting it far behind industry leaders Tether and Circle, which issue USDT and USDC, respectively.

The stablecoin market has rapidly become one of the most competitive segments in cryptocurrency, as major financial institutions, payment companies, and tech giants race to issue and integrate USD-pegged tokens. While Tether and Circle continue to dominate with the lion’s share of supply and trading volume, newer players like PayPal's PYUSD are fighting to gain meaningful traction.

"PYUSD is issued under a national trust charter supervised by the OCC, and bringing it natively to Polygon puts a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin on one of the most active networks for stablecoin payments," Paxos Chief Revenue Officer Peter Jonas said.